1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to conditioning and cleaning fibrous material and more particularly seed cotton. This invention particularly utilizes a air permeable belt to support the fibrous material while it is being dried and cleaned. Cotton ginners have ordinary skill in this art.
2. Description of the Related Art
As early as 1985 laboratory studies were made by J. W. Laird and R. V. Baker which indicated that wire mesh belt conveyor could be used in a cotton drying system.
The first full scale belt dryer was constructed and tested in Arizona in 1991, these belt dryers used a wire mesh belt dryer and had a continuous support beneath the belt. The continuous support included a single diagonal support beneath the belt, also the belt was extended through a chamber with downdraft drying, that is to say heated dry air was introduced above the cotton and the treated air passed through the cotton to outlets below the cotton. In this case, the supports included a diagonal support extending from one side of the chamber to the other. The edge of the wire belt was supported by a support flange running along the sides of the chamber and was held down by a hold down flange extending above the support flange along the sides of the chamber. The exhaust ducts under the belt had a circular cross section with the inlets into the duct at the bottom. The bottom run of the wire mesh belt was supported by the bottom of the chamber and a cross conveyor was located near the inlet end of the chamber to remove trash which was moved to that end by the bottom belt dragging along the bottom of the chamber. A second installation was installed in Texas in 1992. The Texas installation did not include any additional features pertinent to this application.